Stem-cell Research (Or Why George W. Should Get Off His High Horse and Stop Vetoing Perfectly Good Bills!)

So, I'm not going to say we Mormons are weirdos. I'm just going to say that we appear to be weirdos to mostly everyone else. Don't believe that? Try explaining to someone NOT Mormon why something as mundane as a coffee shop is the Mormon equivalent of a brothel of sin, or why we won't watch some movies that are touted as some of the best movies of all time, simply because they have an R-rating due to twenty minutes of bloody war scenes or a few too many swear words. Of course, WE can see the logic in this, but other people can't always see it. So, I'm not going to say we're weirdos. But we sure do look like it to others.

So, when Orrin Hatch gets on-board as one of the authors of the stem-cell research bill, I think it's pretty safe to say that it's a good bill. If the crazy Mormons who don't do anything are authoring stem-cell research bills, it's probably a safe bet that it's morally and ethically and religiously ok. WE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO FEAR TEA!!! TEA! WE THINK THAT TEA IS SINFUL!! So, seriously, since we give the impression to so many people that we don't "allow anything" (I've actually been asked what we can do, because "Mormons don't allow anything"), wouldn't it be a safe bet that if a super-conservative, pro-life, 115% Republican Mormon Congressman is pro-stem-cell research, then probably George Bush can be like, "Well, if Orrin's going to say yes, then it's probably good." I mean, come on.

And, I guess I fail to see Bush's religious protection of these "snowflake babies" as he likes to call them. I think that Orrin's actually got the right idea here (and that's about the only political thing I agree with him on). These embyros are going to be a) thrown in the garbage/destroyed or b) used for medical research that may someday possibly save lives and improve the health and lives of others. Seriously, Bush, WWJD? Really, if Jesus were here and He were like, "Ok, so they either get to go to the garbage can or they can be used to possibly help thousands upon thousands of people?" do you HONESTLY think that Jesus would vote for the garbage can? I really don't think so. For Bush to really stand by his religious perspective here, he'd just have to shut down all infertility clinics and make the actual process of creating these embyros a crime. No more mixing sperm and egg together in the petri dishes and then implanting them in the mom--because if she gets pregnant, then the other "snowflake babies" are tossed (or frozen indefinitely). Or, the other option Bush has is to force all families who go through this process to implant every single embyro--congrats, you now have a family of 10!!! But even if Bush went this route, there would still be embyros lost because this process requires so many extra embyros to be made because it's quite common that a lot of the embyros won't implant. So, wouldn't this STILL be problematic for George Bush, because you are creating "life" that you know has a high chance of dying because it doesn't implant? Or is that ok, because the medical definition of "pregnancy" is implantation, so then these lost embyros that don't implant are just like any other chance miscarriage, where the egg and sperm combine through normal sexual activity and for whatever reason, fail to implant and so the woman just expels it without even being aware that it was there?

See, Bush's veto doesn't make sense and actually just runs into a lot more problems that it seeks to solve. Meanwhile the Mormon Congressman who would pass out if you gave him a glass of red wine with his Italian meal is co-authoring the bill. Come on, Bush. Get with the Mormons. We'll make sure that if you ever come down with Parkinson's, you'll have some hope on the horizon. But, for the billionth time, no, you can't watch the un-edited version of Titanic!!